Disney’s Carol Choi Talks BTS And Super Junior K-Pop Docs, Korean Crime Drama And Passion Projects In Japan
EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s Carol Choi has seen it all in the East Asian entertainment business, working for the studio in various roles in China from 2006, then heading up The Walt Disney Company Korea, before being appointed Managing Director of The Walt Disney Company Japan. She currently wears two hats, also serving as EVP Original Content Strategy, across the Asia Pacific region.
Disney moved into Asian local-language content in a big way in 2021, unveiling a bumper slate of Korean, Japanese and Indonesian originals for its Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar streaming platforms, followed by another wave of content announcements late last year. Choi oversees the studio’s long-term collaborations and partnerships with content creators and artists across the region, including a deal struck last year with Korean entertainment giant HYBE, home of the world’s biggest boy band, BTS.
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Two shows under that deal are already streaming – concert film BTS: Permission To Dance On Stage – LA and reality show In The Soop: Friendcation, which follows the travel adventures of BTS member V and his famous actor and singer friends. Next up are a one-off film about J-Hope, the first BTS member to release a solo album, and docu-series BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star.
Disney is also working with other Korean partners on K-pop docs, including Super Junior: The Last Man Standing, which starts streaming today (January 18); as well as music-themed dramas such as Soundtrack #1, which was recently commissioned for a second season.
In Japan, in addition to a large slate of anime projects, Disney recently released live-action crime drama Gannibal and is working on fantasy series Dragons Of Wonderhatch, a hybrid of live-action and anime elements. Both are produced by Drive My Car producer Teruhisa Yamamoto, who recently moved to work in-house with Disney in Tokyo.
Indonesia is another growth market for Disney, where its slate includes The Talent Agency, an Indonesian-language version of France’s Call My Agent, produced by Miles Films and SK Global; Joko Anwar’s Tira, based on Indonesia’s Bumilangit superhero franchise; and drama Wedding Agreement The Series, which is already into its second season.
DEADLINE: Disney has several K-pop documentaries in the pipeline. Obviously anything K-pop related has huge international potential, but how are these docs different to some of the concert films we’ve already seen?
CAROL CHOI: We’re hoping these shows satisfy, not only the fans, but also people who are into music. In the case of Super Junior, it’s also about their journey, as they were one of the first generation of K-pop stars to develop a fanbase that extends beyond Asia and we have a lot of archive material. We’ve found there’s also this interest in looking at what motivates them, how hard they train, and how they got there. Partly, it’s also about the nostalgia, the generation that grew up with them will think, ‘wow, I remember when that song came out, and I was doing that, and look where they are now’. I’m interested to see if we attract a different audience to the shows with BTS, as they are more current, they’re younger, whereas with Super Junior, this is their 18th anniversary.
But of course each show is different. In The Soop is more of a reality series, and I wasn’t sure if fans outside of Korea would find it interesting, but it’s become one of the most popular shows on Disney+. The J-Hope film is about his solo career, so it’s more about him as an individual. You can see how the labels plan to develop and expose the career of a group, then work with them as individual artists, and some of them also leverage these shows to bring in newcomers and introduce the next generation. So we try to be good partners and collaborate with the labels to map out that journey of, not just the artists, but also how they want to showcase the talents in their portfolio.
DEADLINE: Will all these shows be streamed globally? Did you see anything surprising in the numbers for the BTS concert film, Permission To Dance?
CHOI: We have so much content that not everything gets a global release. But in terms of K-pop and music-themed content, it’s a genre that can really travel, so we talk early to plan the calendar and identify the priorities of the various markets. BTS was pretty much our first case, and of course was very successful, so now in internal meetings, the various regions often talk about how music is such a strong genre to travel beyond borders. Among other highlights, the numbers for BTS were very good in Latin America, which was good to see.
DEADLINE: K-pop aside, when you’re commissioning in Korea or Japan, do you prioritize the local market first and foremost, or are you mostly looking for shows that can travel?
CHOI: Obviously it has to start with a great story, but it’s also about how you can package the content. So when you have stars that are recognizable outside their home country, and more of them are these days, of course it helps the content to travel.
But you have to make sure the show is a hit in its home market. There are things that we as Disney can do to increase a show’s chance of success beyond its own borders. Casting is one of them, sometimes the location, then there’s the learnings and data that we’re able to share with our creators. But we all agree that a show needs to have that support in its home market in order for it to be talked about and enter into the fabric of social conversations.
DEADLINE: What other genres are currently working for you in Korea?
CHOI: Recently detective and legal dramas are a recurring theme. We had a show called Big Mouth about a lawyer seeking justice, and the fight for justice seems to be another popular topic. Apart from the strength of the stories, this is a genre that gives space for these very strong acting performances; they’re memorable and stir up a lot of emotion in the audience. The success of our current show, Big Bet, is very much talent based, as it stars Choi Minsik [Oldboy, The Admiral: Roaring Currents], one of Korea’s legendary actors, who hasn’t done a series for more than 20 years. That’s something that is being talked about a lot in Korea.
DEADLINE: Do these grittier shows also work internationally? Previously it’s been mostly romantic dramas (and one high-concept survival show) that have travelled outside of Korea.
CHOI: They’re starting to as more talent gets recognized outside their home countries. For example, Jung Hae-in, the lead in Connect [a Disney crime drama directed by Japan’s Takeshi Miike in Korea] was also the male lead in romantic drama Snowdrop, which did well for us, and Snowdrop also starred Jisoo from [Korean girl band] Blackpink. There’s a lot of this crossover in the Korean talent pool, and that’s helping more content to travel. So it’s a combination of the genre, the storytelling and the talent we develop relationships with.
DEADLINE: Which genres are working in Japan? And as Disney has the ability to fully finance, are local content creators finding it liberating to work outside Japan’s rigid production committee structure?
CHOI: Japan, in particular, has always been heavily dominated by terrestrial broadcasters, so what people want to see on SVOD is typically some of the edgier content. And frankly also some of the bigger-budget content that’s outside of what you could spend to produce a 10-episode series when you’re selling ads in prime time. An example is something like Dragons Of Wonderhatch, which is like Enchanted in that it’s a crossover from the anime space into the real world. It’s something that could showcase the excellence of, not only the storytelling, but also the art form of animation out of Japan.
What we’re finding is that some of these titles are the passion projects of independent producers, who bring them to our attention as something that a traditional broadcaster might not be interested in.
But it’s not just about circumventing the production committee structure, which we acknowledge has strengths, because when it works, it works very well. They have this ecosystem built up – there’s the merchandise piece, the TV piece, there’s the marketing, and perhaps also a theatrical release. And they’ve done very well these last few years, particularly during the pandemic. So depending on the deal, we’re not opposed to having additional partners, particularly when some IPs are held in such a structure. But so far, in order to get things up and running, we have been mostly solo financing.
DEADLINE: A few years ago, nobody was looking at Indonesia, but now all the streamers seem to be developing local-language content there. How is that market shaping up for you?
CHOI: It’s really about having this wonderful platform that allows storytellers from different regions to showcase their talents. We’re also on a learning curve, but on the various occasions when we’ve been able to bring the Indonesian talents to the Busan Film Festival and our local content showcases, the response and interest has been tremendous. It’s about creating a space for people to sample the content and come to understand the appeal. So we remain optimistic and excited about the possibilities. There’s such tremendous talent in Indonesia and they’re so excited to be able to be on the same stage with our Korean and Japanese talents, and again to be given that opportunity.
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